On Evil in Small Doses 
times, as we have tried to show, they have decidedly 
helped and not hindered vegetation. 
Now that man has proceeded so far with the great 
undertaking of subduing the earth and making the most 
of every green herb and fruitful tree, his réle is changing ; 
once a mere vegetable Apollyon, he is now rather a 
beneficent guardian angel, intelligently cherishing flowers, 
grasses, and forests, and calling them into existence even 
in places where vegetation by itself can make no progress. 
Surely then it is one of his first and most pleasant 
privileges to take a kindly and intelligent interest in 
every flower and weed and tree, To know its name 
is not a difficult matter, but to understand how it lives 
in One particular spot and its meaning in the scheme of 
the particular association to which it belongs, those are 
difficult problems as to which as yet there is but little 
that is certainly known. 
There is only one other point which falls to be men- 
tioned here. Not very long ago it was supposed that 
protoplasm could be explained, by physics and chemistry, 
as a mere machine, no doubt a complicated and intricate 
mechanism, but still essentially a machine. This led 
to a gross and blatant materialism which, happily, seems 
to be in process of vanishing away. 
Now, many of our best and most honoured teachers 
have accepted the fact that protoplasm is alive and 
therefore differs altogether from machinery. Surely a 
humble and reverent spirit always distinguishes the real 
student of nature. 
1 Biometrika. 2 Johansen, 3 De Vries. * Klebs. 
5 Kunze, Stahlecker. ° Nakamura, Watterson. ? Masayasu. 
8 Klécker. ® Kegel. 10 Ewart. 1 Kolkwitz, 
12 Erikson. 138 Knight, Krasan, and Frank, 14 Zalenski. 
18 Richards. 16 Montemartini. 17 Andersson. 18 Massart, 
1 La Floresta. 20 Shibata. 31 Gibson. 22 Salmon, 
8 Cieslar, Sorauer. 4 Neger, ®5 Chittenden. 26 Massee, 
337 Ps 
